Tuesday, July 13, 2010

War on weeds

I went to the farm today with no real plan. Sure there was plenty to do. But nothing urgent. I guess you could say that that is a success in and of itself, because it means I've gotten slightly on top of things. First I picked up my weekly field report which said about the weeds, and I quote, "weeds [in pathways] are waist high. Seriously competing for sunlight/nutrients. Bunny came out of the weeds while I was here. Weedwack ASAP." Nothing I didn't know already. I've been desperate for that weedwacker. (There is a mower, but only my husband knows how to use it and I have no intentions of trying to learn because it would be unsuccessful and a huge waste of time. I mean, the weedwacker itself took me 15 minutes to figure out, and all you have to do is pull the rip cord). I opened the shed with low expectations of the weed wacker being there. And it wasn't. But wait... what was that in the back? Could it be? The weedwacker. I think I heard a chorus of angels sing that harmonized note when something majestic happens.

I took to the weeds! OSHA probably could have sited me for not yelling "timber" before I fell some of them. I got about 1/3 of the way done before the thing died because it needed more gas and there was none available. Oh, and the blade fell off and I was very proud of myself for reassembling it. My arms were tired anyway. I then set about pulling them by hand. It was hard work but had the added benefit of pulling them down to the roots which hopefully will buy me some time before the next weed crisis. I started stooped over and by the end of the night was on my hands and knees; soaking wet from the storm earlier in the day. I got most of the pathways cleared on either side of my plants so they can access the sunlight. I could see that their growth did seem to be slightly stunted from their need to compete for sunlight. But it occurred to me that that could have protected them from last week's heat wave. So let's just pretend that that was my plan all along.

On a completely different note: Remember the exquisite criss-cross design tomato stakes I put up? Well I've given up on that. I saw another farmer who just tied tomatoes to their own stake. Seems easier to me. Although it's nice to know my options. When I tell you what I ended up doing though you will raise an eyebrow. And if you could actually see it (maybe I'll take a picture) you will laugh. Since it took me so long to stake them, there was already some serious tomato spreading going on. So I basically tied up the plants with twine wrapped around them every which way back and forth between the stakes and the branches numerous times. The heavy ones needed lots of support so I would pull it up in this direction tied to a stake and a little to the right tied to this other stake. And basically it looks like this big jumbled mess. We'll see how it works. It reminds me of how I sew. I was a straight A student in middle school who got my one C on my sewing project in home economics. And in nursing school I witnessed a surgery and was inspired to become a surgeon until I realized it would require neat sewing skills.